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Friday The 13th, Camp Crystal Lake #2
Jason's Curse
Obsessed by the murder of her brother at Camp Crystal Lake, Kelly Boone sets out to put to rest forever the evil legacy of Jason Voorhees, but the curse is reawakened when a backwoods fisherman hooks a surprising catch, Jason's hockey mask.
186 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1994
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September 13, 2019
“You crazy kids want to die tonight, is that the idea?”After a poorly timed sore throat caused her to miss out on attending last year’s Mother’s Day massacre, Kelly Boone is preparing for her own Camp Crystal Lake slaycation.
Unfortunately Jason isn’t the man behind the mask in this book either. I’m guessing he’s still hanging out in Hell; the first book appeared to take place sometime after Jason Goes to Hell in the Voorhees-verse timeline. Jason does have a very brief cameo of sorts in this book; it’s possible he was hallucinated by someone who’d lost a significant amount of blood but I’d prefer to believe it was him somehow . Since Jason is currently mostly unavailable we have yet another new hockey mask wearer.
So, who are potentially nearly departed?
Kelly Boone - Our hero with the tragic past. Now 18, Kelly has gone from captain of the varsity basketball team to someone who didn’t even apply for college. She has a lot of nightmares and migraines, and is depressed. When she’s not busy smoking she’s in the library researching Crystal Lake. She has a plan. She has a hunting knife. She should be a shoo in to survive. However, she is also the first person to suggest the group split up so my Horror 101 alarm bells are ringing. But someone has to survive, right?
“I mean, our whole lives are at stake, okay? In case you want some motivation.”Doug Sanderson - Kelly’s boyfriend. This “cool and relaxed” 23 year old drives a beat up Volvo and consistently flunks courses at the local community college. Not the brightest of contestants, he’s a serial flirt and so there’s no way he’s making it out of Crystal Lake alive.
Tina Chen - Miguel’s girlfriend. She’s 17, smart and planning on studying psychology at NYU. Her psychobabble and don’t bode well for her.
Miguel Hernandez - Tina’s boyfriend. He’s 18, works at a karate school and is excited to be going monster hunting. His martial arts training could potentially be useful but his annoying Beavis and Butthead impressions may make you wish hockey mask guy would shut him up. His arrogance may be his undoing:
“Actually, mister, we’re going to stick around, see, and kill Jason for you, since no one around here seems like they can do it themselves.”Big Red - the man behind the mask. I felt for this 45 year old with the artificial leg, glass eye and permanent indentation in his bald head. He’s survived a bucketload of awfulness in his life and I probably would’ve still wanted to give him a hug while he was swinging a machete at me. It doesn’t matter how much I want him to be okay though. He’s the guy wearing the hockey mask. He’s toast!
Ma and Pa - Big Red’s parents. Depending on what their backstory is they probably have a 50/50 shot of surviving (at best).
Tuck - Pa’s drinking buddy who runs the fishing store. Horror 101 taught me that alcohol intake is usually enough to warrant a death scene so it’s probably not looking too promising for good ol’ Tuck.
Bud - Pa’s other drinking buddy. He has a son (Bud Junior), daughter-in-law (Jessie) and three grandkids, Cassie (6), James (4) and Little Billy (a baby). The adults are fair game but surely the children will live long enough to grow up to be adults that a new generation hockey mask killer can slaughter.
Darlene - The new waitress. She wears the name tag of the diner’s last waitress, who was previously sliced and diced. This doesn’t seem like a good omen.
Officer Donner - Law enforcement types don’t usually fare so well in slasher type encounters so I’m not holding my breath for this one.
This was a fun read but I didn’t get into the characters as much as I did in the first book. A lot of the death scenes took place off page and as I’ve already mentioned, Jason isn’t the slasher in this story so that was a let down.
Jason’s mask has some weird but kind of cool, leave-your-brain-disengaged powers. After donning the mask, Big Red’s glass eye . There’s also some unexplained magical connection between the hockey mask and .
While I wanted to believe the hockey mask magic was possible, the story pretty much left me behind when Boone (Kelly’s brother),
Body count - 14 people and 1 grasshopper, if I’ve counted correctly. Most, but not all, of these deaths were orchestrated by our Jason wannabe.
Cover image: While this picture is cheesy horror fun, it doesn’t exactly line up with the story. None of our couples take a boat trip together, the guy in the hockey mask is supposed to be bald and wearing overalls, and even he would know better than to hang out in the lake, considering the abundance and size of .
From the bizarre coincidences department: This book was my 169th read so far this year. The square root of 169 just so happens to be 13. Coincidence or X-File?!
Content warnings include .
I’m rounding up from 3.5 stars.
I found the awesome artwork at the beginning of this review at dandingeroz.deviantart.com.
November 13, 2020
Kelly's brother was killed in a massacre at Camp Crystal Lake and she lives with the regret that she wasn't there to be able to save him. She plans to go there and track Jason down to avenge her brother's death, and her boyfriend plus a couple of friends insist on joining her. Extra pairs of hands can only be a good thing, right?
One thing to note is that Jason Voorhees does not feature in this story. He and his legend are mentioned but this story is actually about his cursed mask. The mask is found by a character who lives in the woods and when he wears the mask he is taken over by rage and the urge to kill!
We hear from multiple perspectives throughout the story which keeps things moving along quickly and there are plenty of kills along the way. This read very much like a Friday the 13th movie, both in the fact that I could visualise the story playing out on screen and that it felt like it could have been an installment in the franchise. Very entertaining!
One thing to note is that Jason Voorhees does not feature in this story. He and his legend are mentioned but this story is actually about his cursed mask. The mask is found by a character who lives in the woods and when he wears the mask he is taken over by rage and the urge to kill!
We hear from multiple perspectives throughout the story which keeps things moving along quickly and there are plenty of kills along the way. This read very much like a Friday the 13th movie, both in the fact that I could visualise the story playing out on screen and that it felt like it could have been an installment in the franchise. Very entertaining!
August 21, 2023
I really love this series. This book was especially interesting because the main character was actually hunting Jason. I felt sad for the guy possessed by the mask though. But this was definitely a fun story to lose yourself in.
May 23, 2024
I loved this book series so much as kid. I wish they would have turned this into a movie. It's obviously not as good now that I'm older, but it's still a fun afternoon read if you're into sexy teenagers getting slashed up.
June 10, 2025
An improvement over the first book, in terms of character and carnage. Boone's younger sister Kelly made a better protagonist, a very depressed sibling with survivor's guilt, than Carly. The supporting cast was mostly obnoxious too, like before, but, even still, they had a little more depth than their predecessors.
Not sure why the author referred to an Asian American girl, whose surname was Chen, as Japanese, though. Tina Chen would be Chinese.
Jason's latest possession victim, also a victim of child trauma, was more engaging than the last guy. I actually felt pity for him as he remembered the physical and emotional abuse he endured at the hands of his family.
In addition, this book managed to make me a bit queasy when the killer claimed two kids and a baby. Even the movies didn't go there.
Not sure why the author referred to an Asian American girl, whose surname was Chen, as Japanese, though. Tina Chen would be Chinese.
Jason's latest possession victim, also a victim of child trauma, was more engaging than the last guy. I actually felt pity for him as he remembered the physical and emotional abuse he endured at the hands of his family.
In addition, this book managed to make me a bit queasy when the killer claimed two kids and a baby. Even the movies didn't go there.
November 2, 2025
In a few ways, Jason's Curse is an improvement on Mother's Day, and I'd probably rate it higher if I'd read it first. But the formula is definitely starting to show. I wouldn't mind that so much if it only applied to the plot--slashers are formulaic, and you can practically set your watch by the predictability of the first murder, the sex scene, the protagonist stumbling across the corpses of their dead friends, etc. What started to wear on me is the repetition of character types.
Our protagonist is Kelly, who was an offscreen character in the first book who was too sick to join the other teens on their camping trip. She's dropped out of life as a result of depression, stemming from her brother Boone's murder in the first book. After wallowing in tragedy and obsession for long enough that her friends are pushed past the point of concern, she decides to trek out to Crystal Lake and take revenge on the murderer nobody believes exists--Jason Voorhees.
Joining her are her boyfriend, the cocky and good-looking Doug; bodybuilding judo practitioner Miguel; and extremely frigid and unsupportive psych major Tina. Even though Kelly insists on going alone, they decide to tag along, treating the expedition more like a summer getaway than a hunting party. I wonder how that attitude will work out for them?
I was immediately a bit on-edge at the beginning of Jason's Curse. The prologue introduces an old-fashioned "simple-minded" redneck character named Big Red, who leaves notes to his parents every morning to let them know he's "Gon Fishun"; he's the galoot who bumbles across the possessed hockey mask this time around, as opposed to the nameless hunter of the first book, and wouldn't you know he's also a big fella? I was worried the story would exploit him, but he's given a sympathetic backstory that makes him a pretty good analogue for Jason.
The other red flag started waving when the "Hispanic" Miguel is revealed to have been voted "Most Likely to Kill Someone" in high school, making me worry that his portrayal would be limited to gangbanger stereotypes. As it turns out, he's the only character to exhibit any sympathy whatsoever for Kelly, who everybody else just treats like garbage because she's not fully healed from the trauma of her brother's terrible murder less than a year after it happened. (And they are all described as the sort of roommates who never clean up after themselves. Kelly doesn't mind, as it gives her something to do when she can't sleep, but I'm already pumped for them to die.)
The biggest problem is that Kelly goes through pretty much the same arc with Doug that Carly went through with Paul in the first book--buying into the idea that he's a great all-American desirable boy who has a right to be frustrated when she won't put out, then suddenly realizing what a total sleazoid he is. It's a bit dull to read through the same progression a second time, especially when Kelly has so much more going on internally than Carly did--boy trouble is not what makes her interesting as a character.
Tina is also just a worse version of Monique from the first book, complaining constantly and exhibiting no warmth toward Kelly, her supposed friend. You would hope that her background as a student of psychology would pay off in some way, as Jason is frequently bested by appeals to his deep-seated issues, but I guess the only point of her spewing "psychobabble" is to show how annoying educated girls are.
I liked Kelly as a Final Girl. When shit starts to go down, she manages to keep a cool head, even as her plans start going wrong and people start dying, and you get the feeling that she is fully aware she may be killed on her mission of vengeance. Characters knowingly walking into danger is a trope in horror movies, and they often say they're prepared to die, but then when push comes to shove they start panicking like the possibility never occurred to them. Kelly seems to really be at peace with the fact that she might fail.
The only thing that bugs me about her is that, while she's the only person who believes in the legend of Jason, which everybody else (including the townspeople) dismiss as a myth, it doesn't seem to occur to her that she might need a supernatural solution for a supernatural problem. She believes that Jason keeps coming back to life no matter how many times he's seemingly put down, but her plans to deal with him basically come down to survivalist booby traps. I would have appreciated a reference to the idea that she had spent her time doing research, studying the occult, trying to find an Achilles' heel for this seemingly unstoppable monster.
(There's also the problem that the deceased Boone, Kelly's brother and the motivation for her suicide mission, was a completely unredeemable trash pile. But family ties and all.)
Outside of that, I think Eric Morse does a good job evoking the setting of a cursed but eerily beautiful campground and the adjoining rural town. There's a fun idea in the scene where the characters stop at a diner and the waitress tells them her name isn't Betsey, she just inherited the name tag from an employee who was brutally murdered. I could honestly watch a mockumentary that interviews the citizens of Crystal Lake and collects little tidbits like that.
Our protagonist is Kelly, who was an offscreen character in the first book who was too sick to join the other teens on their camping trip. She's dropped out of life as a result of depression, stemming from her brother Boone's murder in the first book. After wallowing in tragedy and obsession for long enough that her friends are pushed past the point of concern, she decides to trek out to Crystal Lake and take revenge on the murderer nobody believes exists--Jason Voorhees.
Joining her are her boyfriend, the cocky and good-looking Doug; bodybuilding judo practitioner Miguel; and extremely frigid and unsupportive psych major Tina. Even though Kelly insists on going alone, they decide to tag along, treating the expedition more like a summer getaway than a hunting party. I wonder how that attitude will work out for them?
I was immediately a bit on-edge at the beginning of Jason's Curse. The prologue introduces an old-fashioned "simple-minded" redneck character named Big Red, who leaves notes to his parents every morning to let them know he's "Gon Fishun"; he's the galoot who bumbles across the possessed hockey mask this time around, as opposed to the nameless hunter of the first book, and wouldn't you know he's also a big fella? I was worried the story would exploit him, but he's given a sympathetic backstory that makes him a pretty good analogue for Jason.
The other red flag started waving when the "Hispanic" Miguel is revealed to have been voted "Most Likely to Kill Someone" in high school, making me worry that his portrayal would be limited to gangbanger stereotypes. As it turns out, he's the only character to exhibit any sympathy whatsoever for Kelly, who everybody else just treats like garbage because she's not fully healed from the trauma of her brother's terrible murder less than a year after it happened. (And they are all described as the sort of roommates who never clean up after themselves. Kelly doesn't mind, as it gives her something to do when she can't sleep, but I'm already pumped for them to die.)
The biggest problem is that Kelly goes through pretty much the same arc with Doug that Carly went through with Paul in the first book--buying into the idea that he's a great all-American desirable boy who has a right to be frustrated when she won't put out, then suddenly realizing what a total sleazoid he is. It's a bit dull to read through the same progression a second time, especially when Kelly has so much more going on internally than Carly did--boy trouble is not what makes her interesting as a character.
Tina is also just a worse version of Monique from the first book, complaining constantly and exhibiting no warmth toward Kelly, her supposed friend. You would hope that her background as a student of psychology would pay off in some way, as Jason is frequently bested by appeals to his deep-seated issues, but I guess the only point of her spewing "psychobabble" is to show how annoying educated girls are.
I liked Kelly as a Final Girl. When shit starts to go down, she manages to keep a cool head, even as her plans start going wrong and people start dying, and you get the feeling that she is fully aware she may be killed on her mission of vengeance. Characters knowingly walking into danger is a trope in horror movies, and they often say they're prepared to die, but then when push comes to shove they start panicking like the possibility never occurred to them. Kelly seems to really be at peace with the fact that she might fail.
The only thing that bugs me about her is that, while she's the only person who believes in the legend of Jason, which everybody else (including the townspeople) dismiss as a myth, it doesn't seem to occur to her that she might need a supernatural solution for a supernatural problem. She believes that Jason keeps coming back to life no matter how many times he's seemingly put down, but her plans to deal with him basically come down to survivalist booby traps. I would have appreciated a reference to the idea that she had spent her time doing research, studying the occult, trying to find an Achilles' heel for this seemingly unstoppable monster.
(There's also the problem that the deceased Boone, Kelly's brother and the motivation for her suicide mission, was a completely unredeemable trash pile. But family ties and all.)
Outside of that, I think Eric Morse does a good job evoking the setting of a cursed but eerily beautiful campground and the adjoining rural town. There's a fun idea in the scene where the characters stop at a diner and the waitress tells them her name isn't Betsey, she just inherited the name tag from an employee who was brutally murdered. I could honestly watch a mockumentary that interviews the citizens of Crystal Lake and collects little tidbits like that.
October 13, 2013
I was disappointed Jason wasn't actually in this (don't worry that's not a spoiler) but I do commend mr Morse for writing a very simple and effective novel. It's very short, very fast, and worth a Sunday afternoon.
September 24, 2015
This book is similar to the 4th Friday movie instead of the brother looking for his sister who is a previous victim it's a girl searching for her brothers killer. I love that again I love the protagonist!! This is a great sequel
October 19, 2015
Continuing the supernatural saga of Jason's mask begun in the first book of this series, Eric Morse has engineered a tense young-adult thriller of surprising quality for its media tie-in origins. Jason's Curse is more than a cheap way to capitalize on the cult following of the Friday the 13th film franchise: The characters are thoughtfully constructed, intriguing, and believable, the story unpredictable even to experienced fans of the slasher sub-genre, and the tone and writing are original and relatively deep. Jason's Curse is no careless literary toss-off, and readers serious or recreational can derive enjoyment from it. After book one of the series, Mother's Day, the almost absolute lack of continuity in relation to the films should be expected, and the theme of Jason's mask possessing the power to make any wearer an evil, practically invulnerable murderer carries over to Jason's Curse without significant discrepancy. So get ready to head back to Crystal Lake and confront the spirit of Jason's mask a second time. But on this go-round, will anyone survive?
The serial slaughter perpetrated by the mask wearer in Mother's Day did not occur in a vacuum. Kelly, whose brother Boone was among the casualties of the Crystal Lake killer last May, remains traumatized by recurring thoughts of her brother's graphic murder. Kelly didn't join Boone and his friends on their trip to the camp site, a decision that probably spared her life, but the grief over her brother's death is a bottomless pit she plunges further into each day. Obsessed with confronting Boone's murderer and taking his life, Kelly somehow persuades her boyfriend (Doug) and two of their friends (Tina and Miguel) to pack up and come to Crystal Lake with her. Kelly has kept a close eye on any news involving Crystal Lake these past months, and her careful observation has turned up a disturbing pattern of criminal activity, a red flag that Jason Voorhees may still roam the camp grounds in search of new victims. If Jason is alive, Kelly will find him and ensure he doesn't get away with ending her brother's life. It's the only thing left she can do for Boone.
Kelly has no way of knowing that Crystal Lake's current homicide artist is technically a different man than the one who butchered her brother. A developmentally challenged backwoods man known as Big Red becomes the unlucky bearer of the curse of Jason's mask when he takes his daily fishing trip and unwittingly snags the mask from the bottom of the lake on his fishing hook. The plain white hockey face protector transforms Big Red into a violent maniac who can't control his rage, and the massacred bodies pile up as he slices and dices family, friends, and neighbors who have done him wrong. Big Red's tsunami of death elevates as Kelly and her friends arrive at Camp Crystal Lake, unaware they're walking into the middle of a pitiless bloodbath.
Kelly is still heartsick at the pointlessness of Boone's death, but Doug, Tina, and Miguel aren't buying the idea that his killer could be lurking around Crystal Lake. As Kelly sets lethal traps around the cabins for Jason, sure that her presence in the camp's vicinity will draw Jason that way in search of victims, Boone's ghost appears to her now and then, letting her know she's on the right track to stopping Jason and encouraging her to persevere. But when Kelly's friends start turning up as mutilated corpses, it will require every ounce of belief she can muster in her brother to stay the course and wait for Big Red to fall into her trap. Can Kelly trust that Boone's spirit from the great beyond isn't leading her to grisly death at the hands of a notorious mass murderer? Or is there more to her brother's ghostly appearances than first glance reveals?
Not everything about Jason's Curse computes, I have to admit. On the positive side, however, I was caught off-guard by the story's emotional resonance. We go fairly deep into Kelly's depressed mind, commingling with the grief about her brother's sanguine fate so we, too, feel the sadness and despair that has laid dark claim on her life ever since. Her sense of loss is palpable, making us care what happens in the book a lot more than I expected to. Some strange and perplexing plot elements give me pause to rate Jason's Curse too highly, but the emotional pull of the narrative almost makes me want to give it two and a half stars. After reading Mother's Day I was prepared for the tidbits of skillful descriptive writing in Jason's Curse, which also raise the book's favorability in my eyes. My favorite phrase comes when Kelly is kissing Doug at the camp: "The kiss felt great, like a healing balm pouring into her body through her mouth." Way to go, Eric Morse. That's excellent use of words to convey a visceral sensation, far superior to what most expect from mass-market teen horror fiction.
Regardless of the fundamental differences between these books and the movies, Jason's Curse successfully embodies the spirit of the Friday the 13th films, and that should appeal to longtime fans as well as newcomers. Jason's signature sound effect can't be heard in a book, but anyone who has seen the motion pictures is sure to hear the "Khee-khee-khee—Mah-mah-mah" refrain in his or her head when the situation calls for it while reading. Eric Morse makes certain of that with descriptions like the following: "Big Red stood watching the whole scene, breathing noisily and heavily through the round mouth hole in the mask." Could that be any clearer a reference to the Jason sound effect? I also appreciate the inclusion of characters named Doug, Miguel, Tina, and Kelly in this book. Doug Bell's death in Friday the 13th Part IV: The Final Chapter, was an infamously gory one, and Miguel A. Núñez, Jr. played the part of a hip '80s renegade nicknamed "Demon" in Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning. In Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan, the role of victim Eva Watanabe was portrayed by Kelly Hu. The name Tina has an important history with the franchise, as Tina Shepard was the psychic protagonist of Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood, released in 1988. Jason may have been at his most powerful in that movie. Ultimately, most Friday the 13th fanatics will be disappointed that Jason isn't the villain in this series of novels, but Eric Morse's stories are good for what they are. And who knows...might the real Jason show up briefly in Jason's Curse? I liked this book, and I believe Friday the 13th devotees should give the series a chance. It's the next best thing to curling up in a chair on a cold late October night, popping in a Friday the 13th movie, and watching terror ensue as Jason Voorhees somehow reanimates from the grave yet again. Ah, good times. Good times.
The serial slaughter perpetrated by the mask wearer in Mother's Day did not occur in a vacuum. Kelly, whose brother Boone was among the casualties of the Crystal Lake killer last May, remains traumatized by recurring thoughts of her brother's graphic murder. Kelly didn't join Boone and his friends on their trip to the camp site, a decision that probably spared her life, but the grief over her brother's death is a bottomless pit she plunges further into each day. Obsessed with confronting Boone's murderer and taking his life, Kelly somehow persuades her boyfriend (Doug) and two of their friends (Tina and Miguel) to pack up and come to Crystal Lake with her. Kelly has kept a close eye on any news involving Crystal Lake these past months, and her careful observation has turned up a disturbing pattern of criminal activity, a red flag that Jason Voorhees may still roam the camp grounds in search of new victims. If Jason is alive, Kelly will find him and ensure he doesn't get away with ending her brother's life. It's the only thing left she can do for Boone.
Kelly has no way of knowing that Crystal Lake's current homicide artist is technically a different man than the one who butchered her brother. A developmentally challenged backwoods man known as Big Red becomes the unlucky bearer of the curse of Jason's mask when he takes his daily fishing trip and unwittingly snags the mask from the bottom of the lake on his fishing hook. The plain white hockey face protector transforms Big Red into a violent maniac who can't control his rage, and the massacred bodies pile up as he slices and dices family, friends, and neighbors who have done him wrong. Big Red's tsunami of death elevates as Kelly and her friends arrive at Camp Crystal Lake, unaware they're walking into the middle of a pitiless bloodbath.
Kelly is still heartsick at the pointlessness of Boone's death, but Doug, Tina, and Miguel aren't buying the idea that his killer could be lurking around Crystal Lake. As Kelly sets lethal traps around the cabins for Jason, sure that her presence in the camp's vicinity will draw Jason that way in search of victims, Boone's ghost appears to her now and then, letting her know she's on the right track to stopping Jason and encouraging her to persevere. But when Kelly's friends start turning up as mutilated corpses, it will require every ounce of belief she can muster in her brother to stay the course and wait for Big Red to fall into her trap. Can Kelly trust that Boone's spirit from the great beyond isn't leading her to grisly death at the hands of a notorious mass murderer? Or is there more to her brother's ghostly appearances than first glance reveals?
Not everything about Jason's Curse computes, I have to admit. On the positive side, however, I was caught off-guard by the story's emotional resonance. We go fairly deep into Kelly's depressed mind, commingling with the grief about her brother's sanguine fate so we, too, feel the sadness and despair that has laid dark claim on her life ever since. Her sense of loss is palpable, making us care what happens in the book a lot more than I expected to. Some strange and perplexing plot elements give me pause to rate Jason's Curse too highly, but the emotional pull of the narrative almost makes me want to give it two and a half stars. After reading Mother's Day I was prepared for the tidbits of skillful descriptive writing in Jason's Curse, which also raise the book's favorability in my eyes. My favorite phrase comes when Kelly is kissing Doug at the camp: "The kiss felt great, like a healing balm pouring into her body through her mouth." Way to go, Eric Morse. That's excellent use of words to convey a visceral sensation, far superior to what most expect from mass-market teen horror fiction.
Regardless of the fundamental differences between these books and the movies, Jason's Curse successfully embodies the spirit of the Friday the 13th films, and that should appeal to longtime fans as well as newcomers. Jason's signature sound effect can't be heard in a book, but anyone who has seen the motion pictures is sure to hear the "Khee-khee-khee—Mah-mah-mah" refrain in his or her head when the situation calls for it while reading. Eric Morse makes certain of that with descriptions like the following: "Big Red stood watching the whole scene, breathing noisily and heavily through the round mouth hole in the mask." Could that be any clearer a reference to the Jason sound effect? I also appreciate the inclusion of characters named Doug, Miguel, Tina, and Kelly in this book. Doug Bell's death in Friday the 13th Part IV: The Final Chapter, was an infamously gory one, and Miguel A. Núñez, Jr. played the part of a hip '80s renegade nicknamed "Demon" in Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning. In Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan, the role of victim Eva Watanabe was portrayed by Kelly Hu. The name Tina has an important history with the franchise, as Tina Shepard was the psychic protagonist of Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood, released in 1988. Jason may have been at his most powerful in that movie. Ultimately, most Friday the 13th fanatics will be disappointed that Jason isn't the villain in this series of novels, but Eric Morse's stories are good for what they are. And who knows...might the real Jason show up briefly in Jason's Curse? I liked this book, and I believe Friday the 13th devotees should give the series a chance. It's the next best thing to curling up in a chair on a cold late October night, popping in a Friday the 13th movie, and watching terror ensue as Jason Voorhees somehow reanimates from the grave yet again. Ah, good times. Good times.
August 23, 2024
Out of the 4 books in this series, this was the one I was least looking forward to, but it actually turned out to be pretty good. Jason is my favorite horror villian and I love a summer camp/camping setting with a group of friends and a psycho maniac. This book bounces back and forth between Kelly (Boone's brother from the first book) and her friends, to Big Red, the guy who ends up being the killer. Jason doesn't actually appear in this book, which was disappointing. It's his mask that is cursed and whoever puts it on can't take it off and goes on a killing spree. Some of the characters in this book were just insufferable. I haven't hated a character as much as I did Tina and Doug in a good long while. They were terrible people and I can't say I was sad to see them go. Even though Big Red was the killer, you just can't help but feel a little sorry for him and the treatment he endured from everyone in his life. And that ending...ugh. I didn't particularly like the ending.
August 29, 2017
This is the best book of the entire four-book run. Continuing the story from the first novel, the sister of one of the victims decides to go and end Jason's reign once and for all. Her plan is stupid, her friends tag along because she's deranged, and at the end nobody comes back. It's a dire, ugly little offering which is surprising that it's allowed in a YA range because of its nihilism but overall a very satisfying read. It ups the stakes to showing that the corruption of the entire area of Crystal Lake is total (and taking over its inhabitants) and that this book series isn't afraid to end on a very sad note. Definitely worth a read.
October 13, 2024
I really liked it but, there was a part that I was not familiar with regarding the mythos of Jason Vorhees. I really need to rewatch the movies. I read that the author of these books is a Friday the 13th superfan and I feel that he would not use "non-cannon" things in his masterpieces. However, there seems to b a weird plot point that prevents me from giving this 5 stars. The story was great. It followed a Friday the 13th "rule". The characters were believable, and the slasher parts were great for a YA novel. I will read the next book.
September 21, 2022
A year after the massacre where Kelly's brother was murdered by a hunter possessed by Jason Voorhees, Kelly and her friends go back to the same woods to hunt him down and kill him.
This time around Jason's mask possesses another person who continues the killing spree.
Same set up as before, with less plot, less characterization, but more blood and gore.
More action than the previous book, just as good for what it is, just some quick reading for light horror fans.
This time around Jason's mask possesses another person who continues the killing spree.
Same set up as before, with less plot, less characterization, but more blood and gore.
More action than the previous book, just as good for what it is, just some quick reading for light horror fans.
May 21, 2023
This was a great read! I really liked the central character, Kelly, and the supporting cast was great as well. I love the idea of the spirit of Jason being able to possess people. The whole story is well paced and plays out great. Definitely an excellent addition to the F13 lore!
September 5, 2023
The problem with this book is that it's nearly the same story as the first one. I enjoyed the first one because of it's 80's horror movie vibe. They needed to do something different in this one to keep my attention. The two stars are for the well thought out characters.
February 8, 2019
These books are like candy corn. So bad but so good!
March 14, 2022
has some fun twists and turns!!
also really cannot recommend enough the 80’s Slasher Librarian’s audiobook on youtube. i love the reader!!! he adds so much
also really cannot recommend enough the 80’s Slasher Librarian’s audiobook on youtube. i love the reader!!! he adds so much
January 11, 2023
This whole book series is quite good and they should really turn them into movies
April 3, 2023
Old school April
I’m surprised by how good this book was
I’m surprised by how good this book was
January 26, 2022
Much like the original movie, the plot of this YA horror novella is very simple and covers an extremely short timespan (I think slightly less than 48 hours) and .
Pros:
1. The villain is well thought-out character, with a relatable backstory.
2. Symbolically, .
Cons:
1. Since the plot is bare-bones simple, there is a lot of pointless padding and a couple of fake jumpscares.
2. The author struggles with metaphors and similes, so some sentences are most clumsily written.
3. The killer does not actually look like he appears on the cover.
Pros:
1. The villain is well thought-out character, with a relatable backstory.
2. Symbolically, .
Cons:
1. Since the plot is bare-bones simple, there is a lot of pointless padding and a couple of fake jumpscares.
2. The author struggles with metaphors and similes, so some sentences are most clumsily written.
3. The killer does not actually look like he appears on the cover.
July 13, 2025
A continuation of Mothers Day with a revenge plot. It just gets dull and slow with some plot holes for characters. The redneck Jason and his relatives get a bit much too, but was surprised that they killed children although “off screen” in the plot. A step down from the first in the series.
June 2, 2013
Bad in such a good way! Jason's spirit haunts Camp Crystal Lake and whoever finds his hockey mask is cursed to continue his murderous rampage.
This entry finds Big Red stumbling across the mask while he's "Gon Fishun." After dispatching his parents, Big Red's attention turns toward Kelly and her friends who are camping at the abandoned summer camp. But this is what Kelly wants. After all, she's there to hunt down Jason and avenge her brother.
Good gory fun with a surprising twist at the end!
This entry finds Big Red stumbling across the mask while he's "Gon Fishun." After dispatching his parents, Big Red's attention turns toward Kelly and her friends who are camping at the abandoned summer camp. But this is what Kelly wants. After all, she's there to hunt down Jason and avenge her brother.
Good gory fun with a surprising twist at the end!
January 8, 2024
A very fitting addition to the lore, Weird, Bloody and Fast. Yet doesn't stand on the same track as the movies . it takes chances, and if you can let go in that way, You may enjoy.
September 12, 2012
Cheesy, just like the movies. But a good cheesy.
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